Bottled beverages are widely sold in groups of bottles termed "multipacks." In the past such multipacks conventionally included a group of bottles of beverages, typically six, packaged in a paper-board carton having a handle or finger holes which enabled a purchaser to carry the multipack. More recently, as an alternative to multipacks packaged in paper-board containers, unsupported-base multipacks of bottles have been used. In typical unsupported-base multipacks, a plastic bottle holder removably grips upper portions of the bottles of the multipack to enable the bottles to be carried. Such a multipack is shown in FIG. 1. A six-pack of bottles 2 includes six bottles 4 and a bottle holder 6. The bottle holder 6 is a molded plastic structure having six bottle-grip openings passing through it through which the necks of the bottles 4 extend. The bottles 4 are held in place at their necks by the bottle holder 6. The bottle holder 6 has finger holes 8 which enable the six-pack 2 to be carried. When the six-pack is lifted by the bottle holder 6, the bases of the bottles 4 are unsupported. Because the bottle holder 6 is somewhat flexible, the bottles 4 can pivot in the bottle-grip openings of the holder. This ease of pivoting has given rise to problems in warehousing unsupported-base multipacks.
Heretofore, bottlers have ordinarily packed unsupported-base multipacks of bottles in corrugated paper cartons for warehousing and shipment to retailers. For efficient storage in a warehouse, cartons of multipacks must be stacked in multi-tiered structures. When cartons of multipacks are stacked, the lower cartons must bear the weight of the upper cartons. A beverage bottle can bear a surprisingly high compressive load applied between a closure and a base of the bottle if the load is directed substantially along an axial symmetry axis of the bottle. Consequently, to permit cartons to be stacked, a corrugated-paper carton for unsupported-base multipacks transmits the load of a weight on the top of the carton to the closures of the bottles in the carton. However, if the bottles in one carton in a stack of cartons become tilted, the entire stack can become unstable and collapse. As noted above, the bottle holders of typical unsupported-base multipacks do not prevent the bottles in the multipacks from pivoting. Corrugated paper cartons can be relatively easily deformed, particularly in humid climates, which permits bottles in multipacks contained in the cartons to pivot and become tilted. Consequently, bottlers have had to limit the height of the stacks of cartons of unsupported-base multipacks, with the result that greater warehouse floor space is required to store the multipacks than would be required if higher stacks were more stable.
Increasing the guage of the corrugated paper of the cartons can reduce the problem of bottles tilting in the cartons. However, the greater the guage of the corrugated paper in a carton, the more expensive the carton. Since the cartons are used only once and then discarded by the retailer, the cost of the cartons is a significant expense to the bottler. Consequently, increasing the guage of the corrugated paper of the cartons is not a satisfactory solution to the problem of bottles tilting in the cartons.
Corrugated-paper cartons have an additional disadvantage of obscuring the labels of the bottles packaged in the cartons. Thus corrugated-paper cartons are generally unsuitable for displaying multipacks of bottles at a retail store.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,162 to Steinlein and Schoeller discloses a crate for storing both bottles contained in bottle packs and empty bottles without packs. The bottle packs are of a base-supporting type and have partitions which separate the bottles in the pack from one another. The crate includes clusters of pillars extending upward from the bottom of the crate. Each cluster is centered on the intersection of four bottle cells of the crate. The pillars of the same cluster are separated by one or two vertical slot-like gaps extending to the bottom of the crate. The bottom of the bottle pack is provided with holes to allow the pillars of the crate to extend up into the bottle pack. The partitions of the bottle pack fit within the slot-like gaps separating the pillars. The clusters of pillars hold bottles in the crate when the bottles are in bottle packs and when the crate is used for empty bottles without packs. The crate has side walls and end walls which extend upward from the bottom of the crate a distance greater than the height of the pillars. Because of the high side walls and the slot-like gaps of the clusters of pillars, empty crates cannot be efficiently nested one inside the other. Consequently, if a bottler were to use the crates of the --162 patent to ship packs of disposable bottles to a retailer, substantially the same shipping volume would be required to return the empty crates to the bottler, a significant drawback.